Exposure Compensation when using Sony Alpha Cameras 

Wow, thanks!

Happy to help!

Thanks for the positive feedback - glad I could help

I totally agree 100%👍 Mark is simply the best!

Im gonna be spending a lot of time here when i get my a7 iii

I like your comparison with 'a course'. I like to think that each video I create is a lecture. I wrote 30 course books for Focal press from 1990 to 2010 that were adopted by hundreds of college courses and some of these videos would have the been the slide deck that I would have prepared for my own lectures that I delivered over a 14 year period at RMIT University. Since I left I have carried on preparing lectures to give away for free - a small donation or paid membership helps pay the coffee bills.

Glad it helped!

@@AlphaCreativeSkills yes thankbu

Thanks for sharing

You are most welcome

Happy to help!

I figure Gerald does the bench-testing for me and I go out and take photos to prove the point.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills If I were Gerald I would be like, “Hey wait a minute here!” 😄

My pleasure!

My pleasure!

My pleasure!

Glad it was helpful!

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks for your positive feedback

Glad you liked it!

Thanks

You're welcome!

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Glad it was helpful!

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That depends what Shoot Mode you have set and whether this ISO is set o Auto or a specific ISO, e.g. if you are in Aperture priority with the ISO set to 100 the only thing the camera can change is the shutter speed.

Thanks Mark, I normally shoot in P Mode with Auto ISO, so I assume then that exposure compensation is changing the ISO?

Zero is 'Meter as Read' using the algorithms determined by the metering option you have chosen. Zone V is the average tone the meter is trying to average the tones that are present within the metering area.

The histogram is a preview of the Jpeg or the embedded Jpeg in the Raw file. Watch my Zebras 109+ for Raw Shooters if you want a clearer idea of Raw exposure.

Hey Paul! I recently bought macro close up filters, they are really useful, I also reckon you learn about focus stacking, that could help a lot. Hope it was useful :)

@@gergelyszep1075 thanks. Mammals and reptiles usually move too fast for focus stacking in my type of photography, I need a lens that will almost fill the frame with a 150mm stoat yet allow me to be at least 1-2m away. 70-200mm is too short, but the 200-600 mfd is too long at about 3m. I suspect the 100-400 mm is the best with its 900mm mfd. I also use 16-35 for environmental flower pictures, but want a bit more separation than my f4 can give... The f2.8 is really expensive and heavy and generally unnecessary for me... Maybe a short prime would work, I have an a-mount 35mm I could try adapting

Raw has better dynamic range, bit depth, colour gamut and allows you to choose the optimum white balance in post without compromising the quality of the file.

Best feedback I have received all day 👍

@@AlphaCreativeSkills 😎 I think the 14 forgot their reading glasses and missed the mark. 😁 My A1 “should” arrive in a week or two. I ordered on February 4th. 😬 I’m seriously considering starting my own channel. I manage almost 4,000 acres of rural property flourishing with wildlife. We’ve spent decades managing it with an emphasis on conservation, habitat improvement and wildlife friendly farming practices. My father owns an alternative energy company and uses the properties as a demonstration model to convince pork producers to grow native prairie on their land. We’ve been planting their land in prairie for a couple years already. My father’s company put huge impermeable covers over the manure lagoons, capturing the methane and then converting it to compressed natural gas with his modular systems. So between my father’s “save the world” mission, the beautiful landscape and the abundance of wildlife I have plenty to document and share. Pressure is on me though, self inflicted of course. I’m going to have outstanding equipment but I better make sure I’m using it right. Going from a Nikon D810 to the Sony Alpha 1 seems a bit intimidating and overwhelming. Especially all the video picture profiles and specific methods of exposing and editing the footage. At least from a stills perspective I feel a little more confident. Keep up the good work. I’ll be making good use of the knowledge you share. 👍🏻

I haven't used an A7R for 5 or 6 years so can't recall exactly what feature it has. You should be able to press the Display key to cycle through displays (one should include the histogram) and if you hit the Display button a few times when reviewing an image that should also show you a histogram view of the image that you are reviewing.

A filter doesn’t compensate exposure it just reduces exposure which is not the same thing at all.

Minus 2 is now indicating you need to raise your exposure manually using the aperture, shutter speed or ISO. There is no Exposure Compensation in Manual Mode. Compensation is for Auto Exposure.

Expose to the Right (ETTR) results in better quality shadows but after 40 years of selling images to magazines I rarely, if ever, can sell them an image with clipped highlights. Shooting strongly backlit subjects can be managed by fill flash or just changing your own vantage point to the subject. The Sony sensors are also pretty amazing with shadow recovery.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills Thanks !

There may be other camera settings that you have modified that may result in the underexposure you are seeing, such as choice of metering Mode or Exposure Compensation. Highlight Clipping is seldom seen in images that are underexposed.

@AlphaCreativeSkills thanks for your reply. I used matrix metering and exposure was zero. I switched to manual immediately and chose SS of 4000 again with f1.8 and it was obviously brighter with nothing overexposed so seems odd that in aperture priority it chose SS of 8000 and came out dark. Not a big deal because I can use exposure compensation to brighten but I'm always keen to learn and progress. Only had my a7r5 for a week and don't remember this happening on my a74.

No

Try Highlights metering mode

Hi, I have an older model (a7r ii ) which doesn't have this feature, but I was glad to hear positive things about this camera in you recent video....

I have a metering modes video tutorial on my channel

The E 35mm F1.8 is a very early lens design from Sony. More recent lenses are much sharper than this lens. The FE 35mm F1.8 is, for instance, much sharper. Bounce flash indoors from a white ceiling to bring ISO down or use a tripod and Timer delay or Remote. You can also suppress noise using Denoise in Lightroom. I can provided additional support and guidance from my Alpha Support channel Patreon.com/markgaler.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills Thank you. Would the Sigma 30mm 1.4 be a better lens? I'm working with an APS-C sensor, so I'm trying to avoid full-frame lenses unless I do not understand this right and they CAN be used. Not sure.

I have not reviewed the sigma 30mm lens but it is a very popular choice for APS-C owner’s looking for a wide aperture prime.

So, I also have a Sigma 16mm 1.4, and I put it on my Sony a6400, and it's still making the ISO really high when I take photos in high light. Around 1600-2000. Is this normal? I would think 100-200 is for indoors well lit. @@AlphaCreativeSkills

Sounds like you need to explore flash or high ISO noise reduction. I offer further support on my Patreon.com/markgaler support channel. RU-vid is not really the place I can provide personal mentoring. I don't have RU-vid notifications switched on and mostly miss comments beyond the first one.

I work more quickly with Aperture priority and Exposure compensation - Some 44 years professional experience ...and I really, if ever, miss a shot.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills When working with cameras that have a minimum shutter feature I suppose this works well, but some cameras like my a6100 doesn’t. That gives problems. In any case, one might as well adjust ISO as that’s what the camera will be doing when running out of light. You might get the shot quicker but at the potential cost of sub-optimal image quality or SNR depending on how shutter speed and ISO come into play in the specific scenario. At the end of the day all that matters is using a method that works with the requirements you have.

I am not happy that Sony choose to remove the ISO Auto Min SS feature on their entry-level Alpha cameras.

Agree, I see no good reason to remove such a basic feature when the lineup otherwise share the same technology. Of course, I didn’t know this when I bought it used, and I doubt this information would reach the average buyer and influence the buying decision.

If you are in shutter Priority mode and adjust the shutter speed the ISO or aperture will change to ensure the exposure does not change.

For dominant dark tones you use a negative compensation and for dominant light tones you use a positive compensation - this does not have nothing to do with level of illumination, just whether the tones are darker or lighter than average, e.g, the tones of a snow scene are lighter than average.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills Thanks for correcting my misconception on this Mark.

You would need to be in fully Manual Exposure mode to make the change you are suggesting. So your question is really 'do I want to photograph in an Auto Exposure Mode or Fully manual with manual ISO?'

No

I will be coming off Facebook at the end of June, but if you want to follow me you can catch up with me on my Patreon Support Site: www.patreon.com/markgaler

@@AlphaCreativeSkills thanks mark will do!

As a raw shooter the white balance is only a reference (it can be changed to anything else in post). I profile the sensor on my cameras and use a high quality calibrated and profiled monitor so colour is never an issue.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills thank you so much!

Rear Dial and Control wheel

@@AlphaCreativeSkills Right now the camera only lets me change exposure comp. when ISO is on auto. Is it possible to set both iso & exposure manually?

Start by Initializing the camera in the Setup menu to remove any setting you may have inadvertently engaged- solving individual customer camera setup issues is something I offer on my Patreon.com/markgaler support channel

You rarely need the 14+ dynamic range of a Sony Sensor at ISO 100. I cut my career using transparency film that had just 7 stops. The times I do use ISO 100 the camera is on a tripod shooting backlit landscapes where the Shutter Speed can be used to compensate. There is currently some pretty poor advice circulating RU-vid at the moment advising to underexposure in capture and fix in post. Underexpose with the Setting Effect on in a Mirrorless camera and you won’t be able to see your subject on the Monitor or Finder (it will be too dark to even focus). Switch the Setting Effect off and you may have just stayed with a DSLR and have to guess the amount of compensation required or be constantly reviewing the last image you captured. Keep the ISO low and abandon any attempts to shoot wildlife or sports.

Mark Galer's Alpha Creative Skills Interesting. But do you try to stay away from ISOs over 200 and below 640?

Not only can you change the function of the dial on the A7IV but you can also lock the dial so that it does no move when taking it in and out of the camera bag. The dials also lock on the A9II, A7RIV, and A1 - pretty much all the full frame cameras released after the A7III

​@@AlphaCreativeSkills I hate EC dial in A7 III because I need to use at least 2 times more force than on rear dial to change position and dealing with it is very tiring and not accurate for me (texture of dial is less comfortable then on rear dial and I need to make big move to EC by 1 stop and usually to correct burn out sky I need to -1 or -2EV). Do you know if is possible to use rare dial or multi selector during half press shutter button for exposure correction? I can't use any custom buttons / dial during half press shutter button but this would be a very nice feature to change functions of some buttons and dial when I first half press shutter button (like using ctrl/cmd buttons with combinations of other key on computer keyboard).

Is your EC dial turns with similar force like rear dial? I need to use at least 2 times more force to turn it and is almost impossible to turn it during put camera into bag.

It has a tendency to underexpose - especially when specular highlights are in the frame (reflections of the light source of reflective surfaces). It can be useful for stage performances so long as there are no low stage lights within the framing.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills I agree with your observations. And yet, I still use it more often than not, especially in very difficult lighting conditions like you mentioned. (And I can’t help but wonder why you chose stage performances as an example - I’ll look myself up online: I’m bound to find a few of those with my name vaguely associated with them ;-). And here’s another one I like to use: center-weighted. That’s what I would have used on your black and white duck. BTW: seeing the effect of the metering mode in real time in the EVF (or on the monitor) is one of those benefits of mirrorless that I’ve come to appreciate - having shot mostly with DSLRs in the past. It almost completely eliminates the need for chimping. Thanks for your response.

No

What is clipped stays clipped and that, I found after 40 years of pro photography is the biggest sin. Can you imagine clipping the bride’s dress so we can only guess the fabric (hessian or silk)

@@AlphaCreativeSkills In that example the bride would be the main subject hence you would expose for the whites in the dress , in the example in the video 95% of what makes the image is buildings hence I would expose for that and risk clipping the small patch of white in the sky but its just a different way of looking at it and I certainly do not have your expertise and experience .

You have to be in an Auto Exposure shoot mode to use Exposure Compensation (P, A, S or M with ISO Auto).

If you go to Menu > Custom Operation 1 > Custom Key > Rear you will see the Down Button is NOT a custom key you can configure. The défaut function for this key, however, is Exposure Compensation in the P, A, S & M exposure modes. I recommend going to Setup7 > Setting Reset > Camera Settings Reset to see if that solves your problem. You can down a fully illustrated eBook for this camera from my Alpha support channel > Patreon.com/markgaler.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills For some reason, on my camera the exposure compensation is set for the down button as default in the P, A & S modes only. In manual mode the button just switches the Av and Tv. I will try to reset the settings. Thanks for your tips!

@@AlphaCreativeSkills I just reset the camera settings but it didn't solve my problem. On my Alpha 6700 the default function for the down key is Exposure Compensation in all modes (P, A, S, M). Maybe there is a reason this function cannot be set in manual mode on the RX100VII?

There is no exposure compensation possible when in full manual mode (including manual ISO) - you can only adjust exposure using Aperture, shutter or ISO

@@AlphaCreativeSkills It is possible, I just tried it in manual mode. You can set it using Fn -> +/- in ISO Auto mode. What bothers me is that I cannot set it in manual mode using the wheel down button.

Only with partial depression of the shutter release. You can, however, set an ISO range you are happy with for ISO Auto instead of using Sony's defaults. The only downside of this is that you may then underexpose your image in low ambient light or have the shutter speed sink so slow that you encounter camera shake when working in Aperture Priority.

The Australian dollar was very weak a few months back and the economic prospects looked very dire - trade wars between USA and China, Australia upsetting the Chinese resulting in tariffs for Australian goods imported into China, zero International tourism, sending all the International students back home, very poor investment in renewables, massive bush fires etc. Sony adjust prices each year (not every weak) so worked on the current exchange rate at the time and the likely predictions that it would get even worse for the remainder of the year. With the Australian dollar recovering in recent weeks only time will tell if the prices will get readjusted or whether we will have to live with them until next year.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills Thank you for your reply noted! Dave

A dark background will cause the camera to overexpose. use a negative exposure compensation with a dark background and a positive exposure compensation with a bright background.